You Must Be This Tall To Ride
by newvagabond
Summary: Preserum, slight SteveBucky. When you're a kid and you don't meet the height requirement, it's already frustrating. But hey, you're still a kid so you have plenty of time to grow. One day you'll be able to ride that rollercoaster ten times in a row if you wanted to, and you'll puke your hot dogs and icecream but at least you had fun, right?


Okay, I've never actually written anything for this ship. Or anything Bucky. But I got a request on Tumblr. So here we have my attempt at movie-verse characterizations. This is pre-serum TINY!Steve., implied stuff, yaddayadda, more feelsy and fun than slashy. I apologize.

Hopefully refs go over well, eheheh.

When you're a kid and you don't meet the height requirement, it's already frustrating. But hey, you're still a kid so you have plenty of time to grow. One day you'll be able to ride that rollercoaster ten times in a row if you wanted to, and you'll puke your hot dogs and icecream but at least you had fun, right?

Every year a couple more kids would get on and tell everyone about the slow climb up and how for just a second you could see the whole fair, and then you drop and by the time you get off, your hair is just a mess, so you'd better bring a comb.

Steve bought his ticket, waited in line, and wasn't allowed on. He stopped trying somewhere during highschool. And every year the fair came and went and he ignored it, until Bucky shoved a pair of green slips in his face one day.

"It's the last day, let's go."

Steve's mouth tugged uncomfortably. "I thought you were going with—" Bucky shook his head and grabbed a hat from the rack to jam over Steve's head, obscuring his vision briefly. When he pulled it up, his friend was grabbing a coat and standing in the doorway expectantly.

It really was the last day of the fair, so naturally there were people everywhere. Steve took it all in, smell of cotton candy and popcorn, the noises the games made, and screams coming from rides. Especially the big one. He looked anywhere but in that direction, and lucky for him, Bucky wanted to get all of the games out of the way first. He bested him at the mallet swing, but Steve scored high on a disc-throwing game and won a strangely green-tinted teddy bear.

It wasn't until they were half-way through their root beer floats that Bucky pointed up over Steve's shoulder. "We should get on that before the line gets long."

Steve started to turn and caught himself, sucking on his spoon hard. He knew what was behind him. He'd been hearing the racket and the screams all day. "I don't know," he said before a mouthful of vanilla icecream.

"Not scared, are you?" Bucky's eyebrows went up in a way all too familiar to Steve, who in denial of this forced himself to turn and look at the looming ride.

"No," he said solidly, now shifting back. "It's just shouldn't we wait?" He motioned to their root beer floats and Bucky was already on his feet again, tugging at his friend's sleeve.

"By the time we get through the line, we'll be good."

Steve gave his treat a look and wished they'd gotten Coney dogs instead. Every shuffle through the line, he remembered standing next to the little cutout._ You must be this tall to ride!_ The last time he'd tried, someone chucked a toy car at his head and told him to go back to daycare.

As they approached the gate, Steve kept his head down and held out his ticket. After a long moment he realized he was standing by himself and looked up to see Bucky already getting on the ride.

"Hey, come on!"

Steve blinked at the operator, who ripped his ticket and didn't even glance at the height requirement stand. Steve stared at it, and felt a fleeting grin on his face before he raced to join his friend.

They were secured, there was a tug, and they started the ascent. This was it. Bucky kept hitting his knees and was already shouting in excitement. Up, up, up. Two flags came into view at the top, along with a sign to remain seated, and Steve felt his heart pounding. He looked to the rightthe whole fair was below them. Towers, the Ferris wheel, kids.

Steve just gripped the bar and stared. They were up high. He felt his stomach tighten.

"Almost there!" Bucky shouted beside him. The flags went over their heads, and Steve was stiff, knuckles turning white. Bucky threw his hands skyward. "Do it," he said to Steve. "Hands up, it's fun!"

There was a moment of quiet at the top, and Steve looked at his best friend and his stupid grin, and forced himself to put his hands up with him. Then came the drop.

* * *

"Are you okay?"

It would've sounded sincere, but Bucky was in tears from laughing. He tried to pat Steve's back as he hunched over the can to wretch. He was grateful they hadn't had dogs after all. Puking icecream and soda was disgusting enough.

"I'm sorry," Bucky laughed again, trying to pat Steve's hair down which was still sticking straight up.

"Shut up," Steve rasped, finishing with a final spit. Bucky looked guilty now.

"You were right. We should've waited."

"I said shut up. That was the most fun I've ever had." Steve smiled despite his still green face, and wiped at his forehead before taking his hat back.

Bucky wrapped an arm around his smaller friend and shook him slightly, only slightly. "That was great, right? Let's get Coney dogs and go again."

Steve shoved away from him and crashed back into the trash can with a heave.


End file.
